President of Malta Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca met President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset during her official visit to Switzerland.

During a meeting in the presence of the Maltese and Swiss delegations, following a tête-à-tête meeting, the Presidents spoke about the further enhancement of bilateral relations between the countries, and cooperation on global issues including peace-building, security, education, and migration.

President Berset commended the work being done by the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, a success story of collaboration between Malta and Switzerland and said that Switzerland will remain committed to collaborating with MEDAC – a collaboration which will focus on scholarships from 2019 onwards.

President Coleiro Preca, whilst thanking President Berset, said that through the course of its successful 30-year history, MEDAC has proven to be a constructive partnership between Malta and Switzerland, which has empowered over 800 young people from the Middle East and North African countries, so that they become diplomats who believe in dialogue, and in bringing countries together, for peace-building.

“Malta and Switzerland can be bridges for peace, for dialogue, to bring our peoples and our regions together. Together we can make huge statements and create an effective model for others to follow,” President Coleiro Preca said, adding that connection is not only to take place on an official level, and called for contacts to be developed between the Maltese and Swiss civil societies.

This way, the people-to-people contact would increase, thus leading to more sustainable diplomatic and political relations. The President said that the fact that there is excellent direct connectivity will also help for this contact to be further developed.

Both countries also confirmed their mutual support for the respective candidature for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, for the term 2023-2024.

President Coleiro Preca was accompanied by Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change José Herrera.

Diplomatic relations between Malta and Switzerland were established on 25 March 1966. The most recent high-level visit to Malta from Switzerland was a State Visit by Former Swiss President Johann N. Schneider-Ammann that took place on 9-10 September 2016. This was the first-ever State Visit between Malta and Switzerland.